HYDERABAD: Under Operation Smile, the Rachakonda police and the Rangareddy district administration with the help of NGO - Aide et Action, rescued over 350 child labourers and enrolled them in government schools in the last academic year.
The beginning of this year saw as many as 389 children of migrant labour workers enrolled in various government schools in Rangareddy district. The past year has seen over 800 such students studying in the government schools.
During a meeting with the Brick Kiln Owners Association, the Rachakonda Police Commissioner along with Rangareddy District Collector and Aid et Action officials discussed future plans, including setting up of Anganwadis, for the benefit of migrant labourers.
Every year thousands of daily wage earners migrate to Telangana from neighbouring Odisha to work in the brick kilns. Children of such labourers miss at least six to eight months of their education every year.
The initiative, under Rachakonda Commissioner Mahesh M Bhagwat and Rangareddy District Collector Lokesh Kumar, has helped provide education to more than 800 students last year alone.
Commissioner Mahesh M Bhagwat said: “On behalf of the administration we will provide education, health, ICDS and sanitation facilities to the migrant families and their children. With most of them migrating from Odisha, we’ve also made arrangements, with Aide et Action, for bringing Odisha teachers to provide lessons in Odia language.”
Collector Lokesh Kumar said the owners should follow rules and regulations and instructed them not to engage children in the brick kiln work sites.
“Every child should be in school, every child has right to education,” he said. Further instructions were given to the brick kiln owners telling them to not to involve the middlemen in settling payment for the laborers, and that if they wished to, they will have to do so after registration with the Labour Department.